BJP leader Kamal Sharma. Photo courtesy Twitter handle: @kamalsharmabjp
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, March 3
Former Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma on Friday tried to placate Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of a martyr, apologise on his party’s behalf and even explain to her the background of party’s student wing ABVP by posting a video on social media.Gurmehar Kaur, who has been in the news for putting up a post ‘I am not afraid of ABVP’, has faced unsavoury remarks of BJP leaders and has been trolled on social media and allegedly even threatened with rape.After Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Haryana minister Anil Vij and Karnataka MP Prathap Simha criticised her, Sharma this evening acted as a moderator in the ongoing debate by putting up a 15-minute video on Facebook and Twitter titled ‘My message for dear Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of martyr Capt Mandeep Singh’.Speaking at the Hussainiwala war memorial, Sharma begins by explaining it to Gurmehar the importance of the historical site equating it with freedom fighters and also with 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars.The BJP leader soon switches over to the last week’s controversy saying, “You have unfortunately remained in the centre of the storm. You belong to a family of martyr. Shaheed ki beti desh ki beti hoti hai (The daughter of a martyr is the daughter the country).”Considered to be a moderate face of the BJP, Sharma uses lines from ‘Zafarnama’ of Guru Gobind Singh to explain to her the circumstances under which it becomes a compulsion to go for a war.The attempt is to touch an angle to the controversy related to Gurmehar’s 10-month-old video where she holds a placard saying that ‘Pakistan did not kill my father, war killed him’.The leader tells her about his 30-year long connection with ABVP.“Having represented this student body, I wanted to issue a statement related to your post in the last week but then I dropped the idea for I did not want to give it a political colour and thought that ABVP was capable enough to defend itself.“Things went haywire and many BJP leaders also stepped in. Some of them have used wrong words against you and I am sorry on their behalf”, he said.He encourages her to come forward on national issues.“You are courageous. You have a lineage of a martyr. There are challenges standing before the country. There is a need for students like you to come forward and take a stand,” he said.He also quotes a line of Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar saying that one cannot stand neutral in times of moral crisis.He recalls his student days and talks about the role that the BJP-affiliated ABVP played during the days of terrorism and Mandal Commission.He sides with ABVP while countering his political opponents saying that PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh demanded a ban on ABVP while Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal called it ‘gundon ki jamaat’.Making his point, he ends by wishing her good luck on her future.Asked about his video, Kamal Sharma said that he felt that it was required in the present scenario.“Gurmehar is a young girl and needs to be explained certain things. I also intend to have a meeting with her sometime later,” he said.
